Women Power: Bobsled Team From Nigeria Is the First to Qualify for Winter Olympics

Women Power: Bobsled Team From Nigeria Is the First to Qualify for Winter Olympics

For the first time ever, Nigeria will be represented in the Winter Olympics after the women’s bobsled team qualified for the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea. Driver Seun Adigun, brakemen Ngozi Onwumere, and Akuoma Omeoga completed the fifth out of the five required qualifying races on Wednesday and became the first African team ever to qualify in the bobsled category, ESPN reported.

The all-female squad, led by Adigun, a former African 100 meter hurdles champion and 2012 summer Olympian, completed the qualifying races in Utah and Canada on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“This is a huge milestone for sports in Nigeria,” driver Adigun told KweséESPN. “Nothing makes me prouder than to know that I can play a small role in creating opportunities for winter sports to take place in Nigeria.

"Our objective now is to be the best representation of Africa that the Winter Olympics have ever witnessed."

Solomon Ogba, president of the Bobsled and Skeleton Federation of Nigeria, was thrilled with the team’s achievement and commended the women for their “personal dedication and commitment.” “I have watched them train and work hard to represent Nigeria at the Winter Olympics in a very technical and high-risk sport and they have achieved that,” he said in a statement. “They should be very proud, and I am very proud of them.”

Bobsledding is a winter sport in which teams of two or four teammates make timed runs down narrow, twisting, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sled.

Driver Simidele Adeagbo, who is also from Nigeria, is two races away from securing another spot at the games for the country, for the Skeleton competition. Skeleton is a single-rider winter sport in which a person rides a skeleton bobsled down a frozen track while lying face down.

The winter Olympics will begin on February 9 and will be broadcasted live for everyone’s viewing pleasure across the United States.